This longitudinal study examined the reciprocal associations between paternal and maternal rejection and firstborn children's (Mage = 49.9 months; 55% boys) behavior problems across the transition to siblinghood in a sample of 120 families recruited from 2016 to 2018 from Shanghai, China. Parental rejection and behavior problems were assessed before (prenatal) and 1, 6, and 12months after the birth of a baby sibling. Random intercept cross-lagged panel models revealed positive relations between internalizing problems and both maternal and paternal rejection, and between externalizing problems and paternal rejection at the between-person level (rs = .32–.37), but only cross-lagged effects from children's internalizing and externalizing problems to maternal rejection at the within-person level (βs = .30–.54).

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https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cdev.13857?af=R